Using voice technology to access in-the-moment data during pack/product testing, in a less obtrusive way.
Even a well-designed traditional survey can interrupt the consumer experience, impacting the real-life context and preparation flow. As voice interaction with our devices becomes normalized, verbal data collection during “moments of truth” when consumers are interacting in the moment with a package or product is the least obtrusive and most natural way of accessing these moments.
MMR collaborated with General Mills to understand whether voice assisted
technology can:
1. Accurately capture ‘live feedback’ from consumers as they interact
with a package at home
2. Provide incremental insights during in-the-moment consumer
experiences not captured by traditional recall surveys
Method
N=40 respondents evaluated one of two package format designs containing identical product. They were instructed to begin the voice survey using their phones or smart speakers when they were ready to open the package and begin baking.
The voice survey covered 6 key metrics. After completing the voice survey, they continued to bake, and then evaluate the product before completing a traditional recall survey. This recall survey captured further sensory diagnostics and repeated the questions that were asked within the voice survey to produce comparable data.
Click here to view video example online.
Insights at an aggregate level were similar between in-the-moment and recall, but for individual responses, we found 48% of respondents changed their scores for the metric ”Ease of Removal from the package/container” between in-the-moment and recall.
Respondents who had positively increased their score at recall were more likely to talk about the overall convenience of the entire baking experience and were impressed by the product taste.
“It was much easier to squeeze the dough than make it from scratch. All I had to do was open the package instead of baking and cleaning up everything.” Respondents who had decreased their score focused on the amount of product stuck in the pack at recall, that they hadn’t noticed in-the-moment.
Response to Pack B : “Sticky because it's stuck to the packaging a lot.”
Conclusions
Harnessing voice technology can access “moments of truth” less intrusively and provide additional perspective on respondent’s experiences.
Feedback on the entire consumer experience is vital to understand the overall impression of the product and package, what or how to optimize specific areas of that experience, and to access moments that are unbiased by subsequent experiences.
We found that the overall positive experience downplayed the frustrations felt within certain moments of the package experience. With repeated exposure and normalization of the benefits, behavioral economics* has taught us that these pain points could increase frustration and lead to losing potential customers.
* Habituation - Over time we get used to things we’re regularly exposed to and notice them less Negative potency -Negative experiences are more impactful–the brain is finely attuned to pay more attention to negative information and threats than positive information, Chip Heath and Dan Heath “Power of Moments”.
This article is the feedback from a client case study carried out
and published by the MMR Institute, which the editorial illustrate here
for knowledge purposes. The authors cited in the original content are
Tom Bowling (NOVA), Sarah Smith (NOVA), JanaviKumar (General Mills,
Inc.) and Ellie King (MMR Research Worldwide, Inc.). To read the free
translation in French, click
here.
